


Ten Facts about . . . Pride and Prejudice

by Elizabeth (anghraine)



Series: Ten Facts About . . . [2]
Category: Pride and Prejudice - Austen
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-07-01
Updated: 2010-07-22
Packaged: 2017-10-10 08:38:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/97756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anghraine/pseuds/Elizabeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten flashes into the lives of the P&P characters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ten Facts About Elizabeth Bennet

(10) She's been her father's favourite since she began to talk.

She often suspects she’s been her mother’s least favourite from about the same time.

(9) She's fourteen or fifteen when she befriends Charlotte Lucas, then an impossibly sophisticated one and twenty, even though they've lived in the same neighbourhood for – well, forever.

Elizabeth didn't really know her until then. Charlotte is seven years older, she tells herself – those years are less a gap than a chasm before that age – but the truth is simpler.

Elizabeth doesn't know any of the tradesmen's daughters.

(8) Elizabeth doesn't worry about problems she can't do anything about.

If she did, her life would be nothing  _but_ worries.

(7) When it comes to dances, Elizabeth is drawn to reflections of herself: the vivacious, the easy, the witty, the charming.

When it comes to life, however, she draws  _others_ about her: Jane, Mr Bennet, Charlotte, Mrs Gardiner; Darcy. They're not her opposites by any stretch of the imagination, but they're – different. They're not mere alternate selves, a long line of shadow-Elizabeths.

After all, she certainly does not possess her sister's serenity, her father's wry detachment, her friend's practicality, her aunt's reserve, her – lover's? – well,  _his_ cool temper.

They're something apart than herself, different, other – something that, in the end, she cannot help but love.

(6) When Bingley looks for Jane in her face, it's a sign of his lingering devotion.

When Elizabeth looks for Darcy in Lady Catherine and  Miss Darcy, it's a sign of –

_ Nothing _ , she thinks at the time. He is her only significant connection to them; it's only natural to look for the familiar in strangers' faces.

Later, she wonders if it was a sign of something, after all. Not love. Just  _something_.

(5) Elizabeth rather misses having a dog about – the adoration, the unstinting loyalty and sympathy. Darcy, who considers dogs a necessary evil (and dotes upon  _ cats _ , of all wretched beasts) listens to her with a sort of bemused incredulity.

Several months later, they are happily ensconced at Pemberley, enjoying Christmas with Georgiana and the Gardiners. She gives him an illuminated manuscript. 

Darcy gives her a ruby necklace and a puppy.

(4) Almost as soon as the engagement is announced, Elizabeth begins to receive letters:  letters from Cornwall, letters from Yorkshire, letters from London, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, even Ireland.  

A bare handful are from her own relations; Darcy identifies the rest of her would-be correspondents as “my uncle” or “my grandmother” or “my cousin Philadelphia -- the married one; little Phylly’s should not have arrived yet.”  Elizabeth listens in some confusion and no little bemusement, but she is pleased -- for, beneath the differences in style, they all say one thing.  

_May your marriage be a happy one._  

(3) Elizabeth doesn’t care about Darcy’s estrangement from his aunt, not at first.  Lady Catherine is nothing to her, and Darcy seems content to manage the rest of his army of relations.

After a few months, however, the army begins to differentiate into individuals:  reserved Cassandra, friendly, vivacious Lady Auckland and bold, wilful Lavinia, sweet-tempered Lord Darcy and his frail mother.  She sees them more often than she does her own connections, negotiates between feuding factions and permits a privileged few to bring their problems to Darcy himself.  

They _matter_; not simply because she likes most of them, nor even because they do, after all, have some effect on her own life.  They matter  because they are Darcy's family, just as Mary, Kitty, the Gardiners, Mr and Mrs Bennet, even the Wickhams, are hers.

Elizabeth slips some money into Lydia’s letter, and thinks about an arrogant, ungracious woman who, perhaps, loves her nephew.

(2) Elizabeth's first child is a girl, christened Elizabeth Philadelphia Jane for her mother and godmothers.  There is another Elizabeth that year:  the Wickhams’ firstborn, undoubtedly named to curry favour with her wealthy aunt.

The aunt in question may not be fooled, but she interests herself in the child nonetheless.

When Eliza Bingley comes along, eleven months later, Elizabeth dotes on her with a clear conscience.

(1)  In their different ways, all the Darcys hate George Wickham.

Elizabeth hates him most of all.


	2. Ten Facts About Fitzwilliam Darcy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shameless crack.

(10)  Clouds don't bring rain to Pemberley.

Darcy _permits _rain to fall at appropriate intervals.

(9)  Darcy's touch cures consumption, smallpox, leprosy, and the common cold.

On the downside, it makes scarlet fever and pneumonia much worse.

(8)  Puberty never hit Darcy.

_Darcy _ hit puberty.

Men turned gay. Women turned straight. Every person who set eyes on him instantly formed an irrepressible passion for him. Even Fate began warping reality in his favour, which is why helpful coincidences still trail dutifully after him.

(He was twelve.)

(7)  Darcy's first word was the last digit of pi.

(6)  The people who think Darcy's father was named George are _almost _right.

It was actually Jor-El.

(5)  Aliens stay away from Earth because they can still sense Darcy's presence.

Yes, through the pages of the book.

(4)  Darcy reads _Pride and Prejudice _every year.

He smiles all the time because he knows how it ends.

(The first time, the universe tried to break apart, so now he holds it together with the power of his mind.)

(3)  As a child, Darcy tripped over a fallen log and fell through the space-time continuum.

He ended up in a galaxy far, far away, which he saved three times before managing to fall back home.

(The Force wasn't with him. _He _was with the Force.)

(2)  Darcy is a Time Lord.

If he ever hits his thirteenth regeneration, he'll just start all over again.

(1)  Darcy isn't Tom Lefroy, or the Suitor by the Seaside, or any of his creator's other would-be lovers.

He's Jane Austen.


End file.
